Business travel

Beijing to Kunming by train

36 hours

THIRTY-SIX hours is the lifespan of the adult mayfly. It is the average working week (plus one hour of overtime) in France. It is the name of a 1965 film starring James Garner. It is also an incredibly long time to spend on a train. In the midst of the Chinese lunar new year rush, our correspondent travelled 36 hours by rail from Beijing to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, in China’s south-west. He recounts his journey on our Analects blog.